Catnip drying in my living room

Emerald Aisle Farm is still in business

Here at Emerald Aisle Farm where I live in a homesteader's dream with a lot of reality thrown in, I am in the midst of a huge life transition.  The farm plugs on and I plug on but my husband has had a heart attack.  By the look of things this happened possibly two years ago and he never even knew it.  He has lost much energy with one heart valve completely blocked and another mostly blocked.  His body has already created a mighty freeway to get past the blocked one.  Alcohol plays a huge role in his health and his behavior throughout his life.  I have leaped into a 12 step program by the name of al-anon.  I knew I belonged there after hearing the first speaker.  I have been detaching with love for a few years now and was ready for the validation.  The bonus that I did not expect was that I am encouraged toward self care.  Do a jig twice and then do it on the ceiling with a lot of laughter is about the only way I can describe how ready I was for this.  This story will be continued below the picture.

Going to Al-Anon is about me because I am the only person I can change.   What makes a person actually go to a meeting?  Pain is why Al-anon exists.   Wanting to change that pain is what makes you go to a meeting.  As a teenager from a dysfunctional home, Al-Anon could have changed my life.  However, I didn't know about it and I didn't go.  I made all of my biggest life changes in the most natural way and most of them stabbed me to the core.  When I sit down at that Al-Anon table, I know all of those people have experienced the same kind of pain I have experienced.  I know that we are all there because we want to get better.  You will not learn how to change your alcoholic.  You can learn how to maintain serenity as you allow yourself to experience the mountains your choices lead you to climb.

So now that I am bringing my awareness back to myself and my future I can assure you that I am not losing the farm.  It is a great deal of my therapy. I have a survivors's pension from my late husband and am no stranger to getting by on very little.  At this time I cannot plan a schedule for my farm stand.  My farm is getting more attention from me than it has ever since I started the farm stand so it is looking better and better and providing more and more abundance.  I hope to load my car with produce and products and find a corner to sell it from whenever the crops, soap, candles and/or the other creations of my fertile brain come to light.

If you are a customer looking for a product you can always e-mail me at emeraldaislefarm@gmail.com.  If you feel that your message may not have gotten to me try carmendavis6@gmail.com but be sure to let me know you are a customer.  If you are looking for special order of soap, it takes 3 weeks to cure and it might take me at least a week to get the supplies.

Produce boxes

I have to laugh at myself and my boxes.  John drinks a lot of beer and I cut those boxes down and make my produce array.  I am still hunting down the pictures of the boxes I advertised on craigslist.

Razor Clam Spotting

My husband John

Me with my big coat stuffed in my recycled rain pants. (These had been John's.  I just cut them off to make them short enough to fit me.) Note the old fashioned glasses.  I always use old glasses for digging clams.  That way sand cannot ruin my newest glasses.  

Sometimes in this light the clam holes are easier to spot.

Perfect Circles.  That is a razor clam hole.

This too, is a razor clam hole

This is not a razor clam hole

This is a razor clam hole

Thinking about which chickens to grow next

We raised about a dozen of these this year and butchered at 12 weeks.   I have not read all the things about hatcheries to disagree with anything.  It has not been a part of my research, so I don't know exactly what the author of the following links is referring to.  But I loved her information and her presentation.  I have to say that I can substantiate what she says about their needs.  We too, give them a lot of space to scratch and dig for themselves.  They get too hot very easy.  It would not be responsible to allow these chickens to be raised without a fence for protection.   One hen dislocated a hip fairly early, maybe about six weeks old.  She could still get food and water but she walked very oddly and couldn't have out run a cat.

It is December 10th and we ate another one for dinner tonight.  The meat is significantly healthier and the bones are stronger than the standard store bought chicken.   When I say healthier, I mean you can tell the difference the same as you would notice something was strong and muscular versus soft and flabby.  Our chickens were safe, they had life full of scratch, crumble, bugs, kitchen scraps, and garden scraps.  They were fed extra weeds and were ecstatic digging and laying in their beauty dust treatments.

Our grandson helped with this project and it has been a joy educating him about safe practices and humane treatments.  It is a joy to watch him eat.  He had a near death experience with ulcerative colitis and as part of his care, we have included him in our farm life.  Getting good medical care was imperative but beyond that bringing him back into a body filled with strength and vitality through real life experiences with growing fresh vegetables, flowers for the joy of it, fresh eggs, chickens, and pigs, has been our pleasure.  There's more but that is a different story.

This one is about these chickens.  They are the best meat chickens I've ever grown.  They flight less than any other chickens I've raised.  They are sitting ducks for just about anything so we made their growing space unattractive to eagles and hawks, by keeping their area less than 6' across.  An eagle needs 6' or more to raise its wings.  I also attached those annoying little pinwheels for children all around the pens.  A few wiggling ribbons help too.  We never lost a single one of these chickens to a predator.  We made 4 divisions to the pen area so that they could rotate and have fresh greens and bugs daily.

I will raise these chickens again, but I will keep my eye open, like the author in the following articles, and hope to find a chicken I can integrate into a natural propagation routine.

Did I mention that they all dressed out over six pounds each at twelve weeks old?

http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/04/raising-meat-chickens.html

http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/11/can-you-keep-cornish-x-chickens-as-laying-hens.html

Happy Thanksgiving

Shadow.  Our part Greyhound, part Labrador scared cat.  Oops, I mean dog.

One of the reasons that I use the alias asunlitwalk.

When this old hemlock fell in a storm this year it added a lot more sun to my sunlit walks.

Burley Bazaar

Just a reminder of the upcoming local bazaar!  December 6th, 2014 9 AM to 4 PM.  There will be a shuttle every 15 minutes from the Purdy Park N Ride!  Park free.

www.burleybazaar.org